The Killers

While most American bands follow the mainstream by setting up love themes in their songs as well as going to Los Angeles to build their career, The Killers has made its own ways to the walk of fame. The members' persistence to stay in Las Vegas and their exploration on weird issues, like paranoia, jealousy, ambition, even homoerotic themes, are indeed challenging, yet have proven to lead the band into an incredible accomplishment. "I've always had this thing about it not really mattering where you 're from," commented Brian Flowers, the vocalist and keyboardist of the band, "because there's always been this big cloud over America saying you have to live in L.A or you have to live in New York to make it. I always knew it didn't matter as long as you had the songs."

It was all started when Brian quitted his previous band, "Blush Response" in 2001. Later he noticed a small advertisement posted by David Keuning, the future guitarist of the band, in the local newspaper "The Las Vegas Weekly," in order to look for a vocalist and set up a band. Apparently, these two young people felt a click towards each other as David recalled, "He came over with his keyboard and we started going through song ideas straight away. I had the verse to "Mr Brightside" and he went away and wrote the chorus." Through many auditions, both of them finally found Mark Stoermer as the bassist and Ronnie Vannucci Jr as the drummer. By the end of 2002, they all agreed to name the band as "The Killers" upon watching "New Order" performed in the fictitious band called "The Killers" in one of their music videos. "It gave me the ambition that our actual band should be as perfect as their fictional band," said Brian.

Having completed the members of the band, The Killers started to work out their materials as well as performed at a gay Las Vegas drag queen club. A promising real opportunity came down when the band had a showcase for Warner Bros in Los Angeles. Their performance at that time attracted the representative of Warner Bros England who later gave the band's demo tape to an independent label in London called Lizard King Records. Shortly thereafter, they were invited to United Kingdom to sign contract, followed with their release of a limited-edition single entitled "Mr Brightside" by the fall of 2003. This particular single surprisingly reached the Top 10 in United Kingdom while the band earned their early acclaim from U.K magazine, NME. In October 2003, The Killers appeared at the annual CMJ Music Marathon and soon gained huge fans who call themselves as "Victims," before they later signed their worldwide deal with Island Records.

The band's road to success finally reached its peak with the launching of their debut album "Hot Fuss" on June 7, 2004, in U.K. under Lizard King Records, and June 15, 2004, in U.S. under Island Records. The Japanese and French versions were released in late 2004, extending the popularity of this alternative rock band. Even more, it also brought "The Killers" to join the rank of "Interpol", "The Rapture", and "The Strokes," establishing the band as one of most popular bands in America. This is not a mere boast since they have appeared in some notable shows, such as "Saturday Night Live", "The Late Show with David Letterman" in U.K, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and "MTV Presents." Moreover, the band has attained well achievements by being nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize and Fuse's Next Big Thing, as well as winning the 2005 ESKY Music Award for "Best Rookies."

In 2005, The Killers plans to hold their tour around U.S. and Europe, which begins on June 6. This extraordinary band, noted for the use of a faux British accent in their songs, also set for Street Scene 2005 in San Diego July 29-30, along with The White Stripes and Pixies. The next year the band produced a more 'American-cultured' album called 'Sam's Town' whereby one of the tracks titled 'Bones' won the Best Video in the 2007 NME Awards. They spent summer 2007 compiling B-sides and rarities to be compiled in a new album which is slated to arrive in 2008.